Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven review: a compact multi-tasker

We tried out the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven to see if it's a good choice for your kitchen. Designed to slot right into smaller kitchens without taking up too much space, this oven has a unique flip feature that allows it to be folded away when not in use, massively reducing its footprint on your kitchen counters. It's a popular choice for those in apartments, or simply those who need more space to cook in their kitchen, but is the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven any good? We put it to the test, making cauliflower buffalo wings, air frying salmon, and roasting vegetables to see if it's a must-have toaster oven. 

Ninja is known for making some of the best toaster ovens, and given that it also makes great air fryers, it's no surprise that the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven combines the best of both. It has an air fryer mode, as well as broiling, toasting, and even dehydrating function. The bottom can be opened for easy cleaning, but I found that some areas were tricky to reach when I did try and clean the oven after prolonged use. 

If you lack cooking space in your home or you want a compact toaster oven to take some of the pressure away from your regular oven, the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven is a great choice. I love how easy it is to flip away and press it against the kitchen wall, which will buy you a lot of space on your kitchen counter if you're dealing with a chef's kitchen or a smaller space.

Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven: Specifications

• Capacity: 13" pizza, 9 slices of toast or 4-lbs in air fry basket
• Cooking programs: 8
• In the box: Cooker unit, crumb tray, air fry basket, sheet pan, wire rack
• Modes: Air fry, air broil, air roast, bake, dehydrate, toast, bagel, keep warm
• Power: 1,800 Watts
• Dimensions: 19.72 x 7.56 x 14.96 inches

Ninja SP101: unboxing 

The Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven comes in a large, hefty box with a range of inserts to easily slot inside the oven. When the oven is not in use, you can turn it back onto a rear flip-away base, and then push it back against your kitchen wall. This clears plenty of space in front of the oven, which is great for preparing food before putting it inside the oven to cook.

When flipped up, your oven can open from underneath. This gives easy access to clean the inside of the oven, and when you remove the crumb tray you'll find it easy to remove any splashes or food residue. 

The cooking modes in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven include air frying, air roasting, air broiling, as well as baking, toasting (as well as a mode for bagels) and even dehydrating.

The timer and temperature can be adjusted using the dial, and then it's a case of pressing down on that dial to start or pause your cooking mode. 

Toasting in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven

A toaster oven is designed to replace the best toaster as well as microwaves and air fryers, but if it can't toast, that won't save you on the space a toaster will take up in your kitchen. 

The Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven comes with a toast and bagel mode. You can choose the level of browning and the amount of slices inside your oven when cooking on the toasting mode. The bagel mode will heat from only one direction as opposed to above and below, which will leave the edges of the bagel soft and perfect for making a warm sandwich. 

I was impressed by both the bagel toasting and the regular toasting in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven. Everything came out even, with some slight marks from the wire rack on one side of the toast. I didn't find that the top toasted more than the bottom when using the regular toasting mode, so it's perfect for sandwiches, paninis, and warming pastries. 

Cooking fish in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven

I've become accustomed to using the best air fryers when cooking fish at home, so I tried the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven out on the air roast mode when cooking salmon. 

Salmon is quite a fatty fish, so I've found that a lot of fat can drip away when cooking it in an air fryer. This happened with the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven too, and I was concerned that the juices dripping away would cause an issue if they fell directly onto the heating element. 

The Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven crumb tray sits underneath the heating elements, but they are guarded by a metal grated cover. You can put a drip tray underneath to prevent the fat from the salmon falling onto the elements. 

You can illuminate the inside of the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven using a button the control panel, which made it easy to monitor it while it was cooking. 

My salmon cooked in the same time as an air fryer, about 12 minutes in total, which is a lot less than if I'd cooked it in an oven. The fish was crispy and perfectly cooked, and there was no difference in cooking between the fish that was at the back of the oven, and the one at the front. 

Making chicken wings

I used the air fryer tray to make chicken wings with the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven. After marinating my chicken in buffalo sauce for a few hours, I laid it out in the air fryer tray and put it in the oven. The air fryer tray can only go in the top oven latch, but you can put the wire rack beneath it to cook other elements of a meal simultaneously. 

Like salmon, chicken wings are quite fatty, so there was a lot of fat and also buffalo marinade dripping down from the tray insert to the dripping tray. This became baked-on, and a little tricky to clean. 

With a pre-heat time of only a minute, the SP101 has the wings cooked in record time. After 15 minutes in the oven they were perfectly cooked and ready to serve. I had to use oven gloves to hold the tray while I put the wings onto a plate, and then left the oven to cool fully before putting it back against my kitchen wall. 

Baking in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven

Anyone who's read my reviews of the best stand mixers will know that I'm an avid baker, so I was keen to try the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven out to bake.

The Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven doesn't come with a muffin tray, but you can buy a 12-cup muffin pan on the Ninja site if you love to cook cupcakes. 

I used the baking sheet, which is 13x13 inches, to place my cupcake cases in the oven. I was concerned that they would touch the top of the oven when they rose, but I had no issues. I would definitely refrain from cooking bread or a full-sized cake in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven, but that's down to the smaller internal capacity as opposed to any issues in its ability to cook. 

Cleaning

The insert trays, including the drip tray, can go in the dishwasher with the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven. That's great, because a lot of stubborn oil and residue can become baked onto the inside of the air fryer.

When you remove the crumb tray you can pull the base open and clean the inside of the oven. Ninja advises to just use soap and water to do this, but I found that the heating elements became quite dirty and difficult to clean if I didn't clean them after every use. This didn't create any issues in cooking, but it did lose some of the aesthetic value of the oven. 

Should you buy the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven? 

If you plan on using this as your primary oven, you may struggle with the shortness of the cooking space. Not all trays slot into every cooking space in the oven, and it is definitely too short to bake bread or cakes. You will also struggle to fit a whole chicken into this oven, so I would suggest opting for a larger toaster oven if you plan on using this as your primary cooking unit. If you have an oven to cook larger items and want a smaller toaster oven to cook side dishes or make speedy midweek meals, the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven would be great for you.

Another big reason to buy the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven is the pre-heat, which is so quick that it can save you a lot of time when cooking. The cooking and toasting is even, the quality of the air frying is great, and the controls are very easy to get to grips with. 

As I've said, I found cleaning in the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven quite tricky. The inserts can go in the dishwasher, which is great, but the heating elements themselves are hard to clean because they cannot be removed. 

About this review, and the reviewer

Millie Fender is our Editor for all things small appliances at Homes & Gardens. She spends a lot of time testing everything from toasters to air fryers and recommending the very best ones to readers. 

All our reviews are tested from home, and the Ninja Foodi 8-in-1 Flip Mini Oven review is no exception. Millie tested it from August to November to fully make the most of all its capabilities before bringing you this review.